Commodore Free Magazine Issue #61 (PDF)
Commodore Free Magazine Issue #61 (PDF)
Commodore Free Magazine Issue #61 (PDF)
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I dabbled with programming as I said, but realized I was<br />
no good! and so had to find another method to pay bills<br />
and forge out a life. I left school and entered a day job I<br />
went to college and qualified as a carpenter/joiner, I<br />
worked for a local company before being made<br />
redundant and moved to another company working as a<br />
joiner, but in the back of my mind I wanted to do<br />
something with computers, I didn’t know what, but just<br />
wanted to do something. I seemed good at helping<br />
others and explaining about machine terminology, so<br />
was there a job in this, My father purchased an IBM<br />
compatible machine but couldn’t really work it, I studied<br />
the machine and soon found out how to trouble shoot<br />
problems and what the Config and Autoexec files were<br />
for. I also scored as a Drum programmer in a local band,<br />
mainly because I<br />
had an add-on<br />
for the<br />
commodore 64<br />
that replayed<br />
sampled sounds.<br />
One of the<br />
sound kits<br />
supplied<br />
sounded like<br />
“neworder” blue Mondays drum kit so I got the job! The<br />
band didn’t last very long and it was so frustrating<br />
listening to drum sections over and over and then recreating<br />
them, but at least when playing live it was just a<br />
case of pressing a button and then relaxing and looking<br />
cool! I was soon called on to help others setting up<br />
computers at home, tuning in TVs loading files general<br />
helping out really, this started to increase and I thought,<br />
maybe I do have something here.<br />
At least this spawned my interest in more musical addons<br />
for the C64 like the Fm digital sound expander, midi<br />
cartridges and the purchase of a real midi keyboard for<br />
my commodore 64 to trigger the sounds, very cool at the<br />
time. My programming experience increased and I could<br />
write some simple applications, my favorite was a wall<br />
paper estimator I still use this today when decorating.<br />
AMIGA<br />
www.commodorefree.com<br />
I moved to an Amiga 500 for a 21 st birthday present and<br />
again was totally stunned by things like tracker music<br />
programs, heck you could sample bits and pieces and put<br />
together your own remix just on 1 machine. I had always<br />
been musically inclined having been taught the piano<br />
from an early age and soon the Amiga had an add-ons<br />
like me C64 in the way of a Midi interface and a copy of<br />
music X, My equipment grew also with various keyboards<br />
and sound modules being added and then I purchased<br />
Drt`s KCs software and again did nothing much but<br />
compose music.<br />
Some friends pestered so much I actually made a few<br />
demos but rely the music was for my own enjoyment. As<br />
I was made redundant again I thought I would try<br />
working as a shop assistant or a PC technician as I had<br />
built some IBM clones for friends and diagnosed various<br />
problems. I went for an interview with Silica shops, after<br />
a successful interview I worked as the Amiga expert. I<br />
was promoted to assistant manager then for a short time<br />
as manager, it was around this time <strong>Commodore</strong> filed for<br />
bankruptcy and I realized that Silica wouldn’t be able to<br />
function without the <strong>Commodore</strong> range of machines, so I<br />
left and worked as a manager in a local tool hire shop,<br />
then I moved to my current position as a System support<br />
engineer looking after computer/printer/network and<br />
server problems. If it wasn’t for <strong>Commodore</strong> some things<br />
would have never happened. Using the <strong>Commodore</strong><br />
range of machines meant I was 1 step ahead when it<br />
came to using machines and finding problems.<br />
Here are some of the things <strong>Commodore</strong> gave me<br />
1 Fun<br />
2 my career progression<br />
3 lots of friends, because I loved computers and so did<br />
they<br />
4 music<br />
5 fascination about how machines work<br />
So it’s a Bye Jack<br />
and thanks for all of the above, you will be very sadly<br />
missed! Most of All thanks for bringing Computers to the<br />
masses and not just the classes and of course thanks for<br />
<strong>Commodore</strong> and your visions of what could be.<br />
Nigel<br />
<strong>Commodore</strong> <strong>Free</strong> (Editor)<br />
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